Had so much fun on my previous Singapore trip with my friends that we planned another one! Sadly, Ze Xian, Kenji & Aaron couldn't make it this time. Ze Xian had exams, Kenji had basketball training for his school team & Aaron's studying in Taiwan. Nevertheless, the 4 of us (Tim, Alex, Maxine & I) still headed down South to the Lion City!

We went there from the 18th till the 21st of December. I actually forgot that our trip was till the 21st only, I thought it was the 22nd! Forgetful me... And to think that we already planned our itinerary nicely till the 22nd! A lot of things had to be cut short and some plans with our Singaporean friends even had to be cancelled cause we planned to meet them on the 22nd, sigh. I booked the flight tickets in August, so the tickets were a whole load cheaper than if I were to book them in November/December. We flew via Tiger Air and it was only RM165 for a return trip! I reckon if we were to book them in March it would've been even cheaper! (Economics principles of price elasticity of demand, heh.) As for accomodation, all of us have relatives in Singapore but we stayed in Alex's aunt's place because that's where we stayed last year.

Day 1

Flight was at 12pm, but we had to reach the airport by 10am, and we had to start our journey at 830am. So basically I had to wake up at 7am. I thought if I booked an afternoon flight we wouldn't have to wake up so early -- but I was wrong. Oh well, we all learn from our little mistakes!

I look very pale & sick without any lipstick or lipgloss on. :(

After we had settled down and everything, we wanted to get Groupon for Sentosa. We eventually decided to go to the Underwater World to see the dolphins & seals, and we found a package consisting of the Underwater World and some other show called Wings Of Time. I think it's a bird show? Idk. So anyway we found out that we have to go self-collect the tickets from the office in Orchard. I was pretty bummed out that we couldn't relax and everything first but oh well, things we do to beat the queue and save money.

After we came back from Orchard, Alex, Tim and I went to the clubhouse gym (which was pretty badly equipped) and got a little workout in. At night, we headed to town and Alex's cousin Alvin brought us to eat at this place called 18 Chefs in Cineleisure which was quite good and pretty affordable! The highlight of our dinner was that we actually get to "make" our own cheese baked rice - we got to choose the toppings and the stuff we want inside our rice. Like sausages/mushrooms etc. If you have a Singaporean Student ID, you get a discount on the set meal. So Alvin and Tim both got discounts. :( Hmph. After that just basically walked the streets of Orchard and went home cause we were pretty tired already. Tim used to stay in Singapore so he went to meet up with his friends after.

Funny thing happened: Maxine and I were at H&M and we went to Abercrombie to look for Alex and Tim, but they were closing already. I asked one of the workers at the door whether we could still go in but he said no & offered to look for them instead. So I told the worker their names. And then this other girl worker came out and we were all like ???? what??? Turns out, the girl's name is Alex also and the guy worker thought we were looking for her. HAHA.

Day 2

I went to Bugis to shop alone because Maxine's knee was hurting, poor thing :( It was raining like crap and it was super hard for me to get out of the condominium because I didn't have an umbrella. In the end I just walked in the rain (sobs) to the shuttle bus stop to take the shuttle bus to the LRT. If you don't already know, I LOVE shopping alone. I love taking my own time to browse through things and explore the shops on my own. It's super therapeutic and stress-relieving. Bugis is a must-go if you're in Singapore and you're looking for cheap clothes. The items there usually range from $10 to $30 and best part is? It has 3 floors!!!! But most of the clothes are repetitive so you'll have to look around to find the best deal for the same clothing item. No pictures from Bugis cause I was too engrossed in shopping.

Took the MRT to Harbourfront after that and met up with Alex, Maxine and Tim. We had a late lunch at Food Republic and can I just say that I had THE BEST cereal prawn rice. Like no joke, it was the best thing I've ever tasted and for $6.90 only. Craving for it right now..... Mmm........

Headed into Sentosa after that and we kinda got lost for a bit. Basically there are 4 stations in Sentosa. Sentosa Station, Imbiah Station, Beach Station and Waterfront Station. We were damn confident that Underwater World was at Waterfront Station (which is where USS is) so we went there and turns out....... it was SEA Aquarium there, not Underwater World. Ok can't blame us la, the names are related to some water crap. Underwater World is actually at Beach Station which is where Siloso, Tanjong Beach etc are located.

I swear the jellyfish were so beautiful, photos don't do them justice!

Was super happy to see the dolphins because they were just so asdasdkasl CUTE. How can you not love dolphins?! I mean, just LOOK at them!

Saw this post on Twitter that the dolphins aren't taken of nicely though and the picture showed some gnashes/bruises to the dolphin's back, not sure how true that is cause the dolphins seemed pretty fine to me..

After that we left Sentosa and just walked around Vivo City & shopped for a bit. We wanted to take a cab back and the queue for the cabs were DAMN FREAKING LONG... We decided to take a premier cab & beat the queue instead. There was someone before us heading to Marina Bay and the cab driver didn't wanna fetch him there and we were like, "Uncle, Bedok?" and he said OK. FYI, Bedok is like all the way to the east and near the airport and super far from town so idk why he wanted to fetch us... Maybe he was gonna go to the airport to pick up people after that but yeah God bless you uncle!!

Found out that in order to take pictures and swim with the dolphins, you have to pay an additional $200+ I think. Sentosa really whores their dolphins out leh!!

What draws me to a song are the lyrics. And the melody too, of course, but I'm an avid fan of books, words & prose, so the lyrics are still primary to me.

Never really listened to this song properly before, even though it's been out for a while now. I just listened to it and properly appreciated the lyrics. Ed Sheeran is a talented, talented, talented songwriter and singer.

Not sure if you guys have heard about the recent drama over the blogosphere. If you haven't, here's the gist of it. There are two rival social media companies: Nuffnang and Gushcloud. Bloggers like Xiaxue, Qiu Qiu and Yutaki are signed to Nuffnang whereas Naomi Neo, Tammy Tay and Eunice Annabel are signed to Gushcloud. So what I see from this is that Xiaxue really hates GC. (I shall start using abbreviations here like XX and GC) I have been a loyal reader of XX since 2009-2010ish and she is an extremely good writer and blogger even though I don't really agree with some of her views & comments which are super controversial. She is also known for blogging about people who offend her (e.g insulting people's children, looks, etc)

Gushcloud has allegedly been "inflating views" and "buying followers & views" and getting their Influencers/bloggers to do "masked ads". So basically, Xiaxue has been plotting this for a year already. And she set up a fake company to engage Gushcloud's services and paid for a banner ad which cost SGD1k. And bought Gushcloud's financial statements for $50 each. Which is a whole load of work and money if you ask me.

What do I feel about the whole fiasco?

I have no place to say anything in this, I don't consider myself a blogger and I am certainly not "in the industry". I just happen to be a girl that has a blog and who likes writing and I feel like I want to share my thoughts on this.

1. I feel like Xiaxue should've taken a nicer, more sympathetic approach when talking about her fellow bloggers and put the whole blogpost in a nicer tone. She used to be friends with Yan Kay Kay who is under Gushcloud but she openly bashed her ex friend like that and included her name. She also called out Asyiha Ams and Eric Lim. & she kept stressing on how she's a top blogger and she has so much more views on her blogs and videos. As Xiaxue loves to say, really damn buay paiseh loh!! I mean you're famous, we get it. You don't really have to stress that in every single post you post online.

2. After reading Kay Kay and Eric's statements, you can view them here and here, I have a clearer understanding of how Xiaxue manipulated her post, using photos from when Kay Kay and Eric were not actively blogging to her fancy. I take Accounts in college, so I have a rough understanding of the financial statements and balance sheets. As at 2013, yes they indeed do have $16k in the bank but they have trade receivables (money owed by clients etc) of $388k. And do note that it was during 2013. Gushcloud has only recently gained exposure in the blogging industry this year 2014, as I do follow a few of Gushcloud's bloggers and noticed a surge in advertorials among their bloggers this year. So I would assume that they have much more in the bank this year. And I'm pretty sure they treat their Influencers well, assuming that their Influencers have gained so much success (e.g Naomi Neo, Eunice Annabel Asyihah Ams & Rachel Wong got to be Sunsilk Ambassadors) and they all look pretty happy whenever they're together with their GC family.

3. I've seen a shitload of hate comments directed at the GC Influencers who I follow. I find them unnecessary as I've also been a victim of hate tweets. In fact, I hate it when I see hate comments DIRECTLY ON THE PERSON'S PHOTO and hate tweets to people as they are real human beings, capable of emotion and feelings. What do you think they would feel being called "liars" and "fake" and "pathetic" from people they don't even know? (Note: Yes I do indirect tweet people, who doesn't right, I'm sure you're guilty of doing it too at least once? But I indirect tweet things I personally find stupid/illogical or people I dislike. I do not include their names because I know it would be super hurtful reading them. But I have never sent any hate comments on Instagram and I've stopped indirect tweeting people already, trying to turn over a new leaf. :) And the ongoing #faithinXiaxue hashtag war is stupid. This is a "war" between Xiaxue and Gushcloud, not everyone and Gushcloud. There's no point taking sides in this social media fiasco, and there's certainly no point in sending hate tweets and comments to them and making things worse. What did they do to you at all?! So drama sia.

So yeah those are my few thoughts on this. Just something I thought I'd share with you guys because I love writing and this blog is a space where I can clearly express my thoughts (if you guys even care), because if I take to Twitter, I'll get bashed and shit (lolol, so much for freedom of speech :P) I enjoy reading the blogs of both Nuffnang and GC bloggers and each of them have their own different flair for things so I find it unnecessary to hate here hate there and all. (Note: I do not hate Xiaxue, I just dislike some of the stuff she does and says) It's Christmas Eve, and I think that everyone should stop fighting among each other for a couple of bloggers that don't even know you exist. So yeah let's all just be happy and not add fuel to the fire by sending the Influencers hate comments and all okay. :-) Merry Christmas everyone!

I've always wanted to try the Magnum Cafe in Singapore! I guess that interest started after I was browsing on Instagram and I saw a couple of photos of the customized Magnum ice cream there.

Guess what? You don't have to travel all the way to Singapore anymore because... Magnum Cafe is here in Malaysia! It's located in Mid Valley, on the same floor as the food court & cinema. Sue Ann and I made plans to go try it out together. And yeah I'm aware that it's just a marketing gimmick and it really just tastes like regular Magnum but it looks so damn good okay!! And it's worth it for the experience I guess.

The queue is like damn bloody long

Once you get into the actual shop, you'll probably be thinking Omg I can finally get my ice cream.. well it's actually a lie... you still have to queue up some more. Because once you enter, you have to start queuing up from the right side of the picture, make one whole round until the left side of the picture which is the cashier, pay for your ice cream and then go another half round back to the right side.

You can choose any 3 toppings!! And there are two flavors of ice cream to choose between, Vanilla and Chocolate Brownie. You also get to choose the coating which is the hard shell-like layer outside your magnum, and also the color of your drizzle!! Super spoilt for choice! I think we spent 10 minutes choosing or something.

And if you're lazy and uncreative, you can opt for one of the pre-made flavors!
But of course, making your own ice cream is much more fun.

The toppings counter. They have like a shitload of toppings! Oreo crush, dried mango, golden nugget, almonds, marshmallows... and they even have chilli flakes and potato chips (wtf???)

ABOUT

Camillia Lim, 21, Kuala Lumpur.

Your not-so-average girl next door with big city dreams whose tomboy side emerges way too often. An aspiring PR exec/journalist. Thought-provoking conversations, future bass, hip-hop & R&B, taking nice photographs, discovering more about people, a palate for good (& preferably cheap!) food, a productive sweat sesh, jetsetting all over the world, and scoring steals on clothes makes me happy. I spend way too much time laughing at memes to myself than I should. I don't think a small column like this is enough to get to know me so why don't you read on!